Within my tribe of beautiful souls with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or chronic tummy trouble I see women at varying stages in their journey…
I see the woman who after multiple doctors and specialist visits receives her diagnosis of exclusion – IBS. Which means all tests are ‘normal’ so it must be IBS. She is sent on her way with little to no dietary support even though the current research is showing that nutritional guidance should be the first-line treatment for calming IBS symptoms.
I see the woman who believes that diet does have an effect on her painfully bloated tummy and has tried to eat better but is completely confused if what she is trying is helping or hindering because the bloat reigns on.
I see the woman who eats incredibly ‘clean’ foods every single day but her belly is still so angry and inflamed. She has restricted her ‘safe foods’ list down to only a handful of items but her digestive symptoms still remain even though she has done so much work with her diet.
She is frustrated. All of these women are FRUSTRATED.
When it comes to food and chronically inflamed tummies it’s necessary to move through 3 key phases. Whether you have yet to start using food to repair your IBS prone belly (because you are terrified of your kitchen and food) or if you feel like you have already tried everything, I promise there is a next step for you in the phases below.
PHASE 1: Whole foods based diet
Before we build a strong resilient home, we need to lay a solid foundation. If you were so inclined ideally we should be able to GROW, RAISE, HARVEST or HUNT the majority of food we are put into our body and belly. This doesn’t mean we all have to start raising backyard chickens (#mylifegoal) but it does mean that when we are moseying through the grocery store we should be filling our cart with items our great-grandmothers would recognize as food. For exactly how to do this, check out my free web class: How to Transform Everyday Meals into Powerful Gut Healers (IBS grocery list included)
PHASE 2: Confirm your gut triggers, intolerances and food sensitivities with absolute certainty
Chances are that if your digestive issues have been holding you hostage in life for several months or years (or your whole life!) you have developed food sensitivities or intolerances as a result of leaky gut (intestinal permeability). This is where larger than normal food particles start leaking through the intestinal wall causing a ‘stranger danger’ immune response in the body.
Determining your specific sensitivities or intolerances with zero doubt is how we can decrease the inflammation in the body and allow some time and space for healing. IgG Food Sensitivity testing is usually not ideal here (I explain why here) but there is a proven protocol for determining these that is clearly laid out in the Calm your Gut Program.
PHASE 3: Therapeutic Gut Repair Protocol
So many of my digestively challenged friends successfully go through phase 1 and phase 2 via the Calm your Gut Program and come out the other side completely IBS symptom free! (Yay, team!)
But there is a subset of you ladies who eat ridiculously healthy, replace your key triggers and your belly is still angry. Or you have restricted your diet down so much you are only eating a handful of foods. Or you have a crazy load of food sensitivities.
This is when we bring in the big guns. We start with phase 1 and 2 because this is often all that is needed for many and why bring in the army for petty thief.
But for some of you with your inflamed guts we need to go deep with a therapeutic gut healing diet. This is so different and unique for everyone so to find out the next steps for you, please book in for a FREE 30 min IBS SOS call.
I personally don’t believe there is a gut out there that is unfixable. I believe we just need to give it exactly what it needs to calm and repair.
Which phase are you in? Come tell us in the FREE Natural IBS Support Facebook Group.
